TWELVE months after celebrating the 50th anniversary of her first concert at Boston’s Club 47, Joan Baez is back on the road with a tour that plays Birmingham Symphony Hall next Thursday.

The 68-year-old’s incredible career has included marching with Martin Luther King, singing on the first Amnesty Interna­tional tour and, last year, standing alongside Nelson Mandela when the world celebrated his 90th birthday in London’s Hyde Park.

Other highlights and newsworthy events are almost too numerous to mention but here are a few worth noting:

* She recorded her first solo LP for Vanguard Records in 1960, the begin­ning of a prolific 14-album, 12-year association with the label.

* In 1963 Joan began touring with Bob Dylan and recording his songs, a bond that came to symbolise the folk music movement for the next two years.

* In 1964 she withheld 60 per cent of her income tax from the IRS to protest about military spending.

* During the Vietnam war Joan travelled to Hanoi with the US-based Liaison Committee and helped establish Amnesty International on the West Coast.

* Joan was the first major artist to publicly sing No Nos Moveran (We Shall Not Be Moved) in Spain when she performed it on a controversial television appearance in Madrid in 1977, three years after the death of General Franco who had banned it.

* In 1978, she was in Northern Ireland marching with the Irish Peace People, calling for an end to violence.

* In the summer of 1985, after opening the US segment of Live Aid, she appeared at the revived Newport Folk Festival, the first gathering there since 1969. The following year she joined Peter Gabriel, Sting and others on Amnesty International’s Conspiracy of Hope tour.

* In 1993 Joan became the first major artist to perform in Sarajevo since the outbreak of the civil war. She travelled to war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina at the invitation of Refugees International.

* On February 11, 2007, at the 49th annual Grammy Awards, it was announced that Joan had received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award, the greatest honour that the recording academy can bestow.